#sicilian

Happy International Kiss Day!

Have a photo of the Sicilian actor Giovanni Grasso kissing the Catalan playwright and poet Àngel Guimerà (1845-1924).

Grasso played the main character in the Sicilian version of Guimerà's world-famous play Terra Baixa (translated to English as Martha of the Lowlands). The Sicilian language tour became a big hit especially in Argentina (there was a large number of Sicilian immigrants in Argentina). Some letters between the two have been preserved, showing the very close and sweet relation between Guimerà and Grasso.

Guimerà was most likely homosexual from what we can tell by his letters, life, and his exploration of the inability to have biological children in his play The Spider (L'aranya). He is buried in the same tomb as the journalist and pro-Catalan politician Pere Aldavert. Guimerà and Aldavert lived together for half of their life and gave each other mutual powers in front of a notary on Saint Valentine's Day of the year 1910.

If you would like to learn more about Àngel Guimerà and how he was candidate for the Nobel Literature Prize 17 years in a row but blocked as part of Spain's discrimination against the Catalan language, you'll find it in my previous post linked here.

Nowadays, he remains one of the most respected and loved theatre authors in the whole history of Catalan literature.

Since we were blessed with the Italian Dub of Vento Aureo /Golden Wind/ Ventu r'oro (7 years AFTER it came out), I think it is my moment to show you some peculiarities about the dialects inside the anime.

Today we are looking at Risotto and his Sicilian spurs

Let's start with a big truth:

IT'S FAKE.

Is it THAT bad? Not really! It actually sounds funny and allows people who are not actually from Sicily to understand what he's saying!

It sounds like a mix of Italian+Sicilian words

This happened because who did the adaptation took some Italian sentences in the script and turned them "Sicilian".

I personally like this solution cause even if it's not authentic I don't need to read subtitles every time he speaks (NO, GOMORRA NON S'AFFRONTA)

However.

This solution doesn't take into account some peculiarities of Sicilian dialects, like the inverted sentence construction where the verbs are inserted at the end of said sentence.

Sicilians aren’t usually chatty like Risotto Nero in *JoJo*. They use fewer sentences and are way more straightforward (this is why they are perceived as agressive). Their dialect usually chops words short and elongates some vowel to remark specific contests. Speaking too much is seen as annoying.Risotto would’ve probably said just a couple of words before straight-up killing Doppio.

Moreover

Sicilian has MANY variants (for example, the one you hear in The Godfather is the Palermitan variant and sometimes Catanese)...It is my pleasure to rewrite some Risotto's lines using an authentic dialectal variant from Trapani™ taking into account all the considerations above while trying to present his personality.

Ghiaccio, d'addari una calmata, parleremo di soldi *più tardi. -> Arrassate, unn' è tempu (r)I parlari (r )i picciule*.

La cosa Chiù importante è: Sorbetto e gelato un ce stanno ->Sorbetto e gelato un ci sunnu. Ora ri spartere picciule s'appresentano sempre.

Se fosse mandato da passione non si comporterebbe così. Sembra quasi più indifeso di un Picciriddo. ->Pi' 'passione un facissi accussì. Pare chiù scantatu r'un picciridd('r)o.

Ma che minchia, è solo una busta. E dentro non c'è niente vero? -> Minchia solo una busta è. E un c'è nënte rintra.

D'altra parte sei solo un grandissimo cugghione. -> ti cri'ria spetto ma si un minchione.

Persino i tuoi occhi sono strani, non hai più lo sguardo di un Picciriddo->Talia st' occhi, un si chiù un picciridd('r)o.

Che scimunito**->Che chi'e'tino.

Purtroppo pi tia , hai fatto male i conti. ->Mali li facisti i cunta.

Non puoi fare più niente ora,Sugnu troppo lontano. Sei completamente inerme, non hai scampo. Ho vinto. Ora ti taglierò la testa, preparati a morire! Metallic! ->Un poi fare chiù nente ora. Mancu mi tuccass'te. Sì 'na negghia, finiu!Vincivi iò!*** Te tagghio a faccia. More, curnuto! Metallica!

-La Principessa della Squadra

Galactic latte

The English words galaxy and latte are etymologically related. Galaxy stems from the Ancient Greek word for 'milk', gála, which has the same Proto-Indo-European ancestor as Latin lactem, which became latte in Italian.

Besides the fact that it would be more immersive, I can't explain to you how big of a deal it is to have a video game dubbed completely in Sicilian for the first time.

The Sicilian language is in decline, especially among the youth, and has been heavily discriminated against (along with many of the languages of Southern Italy). I have been told Sicilian is "dirty Italian" to my face before. My younger cousins in Sicily used to laugh at me for speaking in Sicilian and not Italian (They have since thankfully changed their view). This is due to 1. Sicilian no longer being taught in schools, and 2. people not wanting to speak it out of fear of being seen as “unintelligent", as speaking the "dialects" is seen to be synonymous with poverty and a lack of education.

The Sicilian language is beautiful, and there are active attempts being made to keep it alive and reintroduce it into schools. It is not "just a dialect," it is our language, a language that is almost a fingerprint of our history, as it is heavily influenced by the various peoples who settled on the island, including Latin, Ancient Greek, Arabic, Norman-French, and Spanish, coming together to create the unique poetic beauty that it is.

While I am not a fan of media that puts the mafia in a positive light, I will be playing this game and I am so excited and full of joy to be able to play a game set in Sicily and in the language, I'm positive I am going to be smiling from ear to ear and crying my eyes out.